Decorate indoors with Sinningia speciosa (Florist’s Gloxinia)
Sinningia speciosa (Florist’s Gloxinia, Brazalian Gloxinia, Violet Slipper Gloxinia)
Spectacular plant with large colourful blooms sitting atop its handsome green foliage.
These eye-catching beauties in such a marvelous array of colours are usually offered for sale as gift plants or decorative houseplants around festive seasons in garden centres and hypermarkets.
Hence, I grabbed the opportunity to capture some [...]
Our garden flowers in February 2010
February had been an extremely hot season in our country, Malaysia! Eeek, too hot and humid most days, with very infrequent rainfall.
Of course, sun-loving plants in our tropical garden like the Bougainvilleas, Madagascar Periwinkles, White Mussaenda, Euphorbia milii, Ponytail Plant and Yucca, to name a few just love the heat while the Norfolk Pine, Macarthur [...]
Colourful flowers in our garden, November 2009
How timely that our tropical garden in November 2009 was in top form to present me with enough photography opportunities to try out my relatively new point and shoot camera, Canon PowerShot SX200 IS! My dearly beloved, John, presented me an early Christmas-cum-40th wedding anniversary-cum-birthday gift during the last week of October. Hehe…too bad that [...]
July 2009 Garden News
Wow! We got to grow a Passiflora vine finally!
The right image shows our first seedling, recently repotted (on July 23th) into a large pot and located against the chain-link fencing at our backyard. It’s growing very well and is now about 38 cm tall, growing too vigorously, I’d say!
Pearly surprised us after the Sunset [...]
Pretty and dependable, that’s Catharanthus roseus
Catharanthus roseus (Madagascar Periwinkle, Rose Periwinkle)
An old-fashioned and reliable bedding plant that never fails to shine year round in our tropical climate, abounding in pretty little flowers that are usually of the purplish-pink, rose-pink or white form.
But, of course, many marvelous cultivars/varieties of various vibrant colors and dwarfish forms have been developed over the many [...]
Epidendrum orchids: so diverse, yet easiest to grow!
Epidendrum species (Epi, Epidendrum Orchid, Crucifix Orchid, Reed-stem Epidendrum, Star Orchid)
How enormous and diverse the genus Epidendrum L. is! It consists of about 1,100 species of orchids that are native to tropical and subtropical Americas and the Caribbean. Now though, it is widely distributed, naturalized and cultivated in many regions worldwide.
The more popular and [...]
Dainty lavender-purple flowers of Plectranthus ‘Mona Lavender’
Plectranthus ‘Mona Lavender’ (Lavender Spur Flower, Mona Lavender)
Another love-at-first-sight flowering plant that was added to our garden in late April 2006. Within a couple of months, it grew into a very attractive compact bush with lots of dainty-looking tubular lavender-purple flowers in lovely batik design. Very showy and incredibly fascinating!
We got to enjoy its profuse [...]
Marvelous colors of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (Tropical Hibiscus)
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (Tropical Hibiscus, Chinese Hibiscus, China Rose, Shoe Flower)
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, the single form with the 5-petaled blood-red blooms, is Malaysia’s national flower. It is locally known as ‘Bunga Raya’ in the Malay language. Hence, it is no surprise that this spectacular ornamental shrub is popularly and abundantly grown in our country, especially along roads [...]
Gomphrena globosa (Globe Amaranth), a colorful everlasting
Gomphrena globosa (Bachelor’s Buttons, Globe Amaranth)
These globe-shaped blooms in brilliant magenta-purple contrast beautifully with its cool and refreshing bluish-green foliage.
Wonderfully catchy and everlasting in color and shape, their showy flowerheads are popularly used as cut flowers or dried flower arrangements!
Garden Star in February 2009
Our Miss February 2009 is none other than this striking beauty, Oxalis triangularis spp. Triangularis, with such impressive foliage in the most unique shape and colors.
Just look at those lovely shamrock-shaped leaves in the right image and you’ll know why this plant is commonly known as Purple Shamrock or Purpleleaf False Shamrock.
